Return of the Uzumaki
by shane1594
Summary: Kushina Uzumaki had a sister. She comes back to help Naruto after he gets run through with Sasuke's sword.
1. A New Naruto

Sasuke used a space/time technique to get in front of Naruto and said "the last time, I didn't kill you because I didn't want to gain power the way that my brother told me to. Now I'm going to kill you on a whim," and before anyone could move ran Naruto through with a Chidori running through his sword. Naruto fell to the ground and started to shake due to the electricity coursing through his body. After Naruto fell to the ground Yamato used Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu to force Sasuke away from him. Sai rushed to stand before Naruto while Sakura quickly slid beside him to see that there was a green sheen covering Naruto.

Orochimaru appeared beside Sasuke standing at the top of the hole that was the roof of the base that they were at. He said "Ohh, that's interesting" seeing the green light surrounding Naruto.

"Let's go" Sasuke said, completely uninterested. Their bodies started to disappear follower by flickering flames as their bodies wafted in the breeze. "Don't come after me again" Sasuke said just before his head completely disappeared.

Yamato came up to Sakura and asked, "what is going on Sakura?"

"I don't know. I've never seen or heard of anything like this."

"Well we better get him back to Konoha as soon as possible. Let's go."

"That might not be the best idea right now."

"What?"

"Well, I've never experienced something like this before so it might not be the best idea to move him right now." Naruto screamed in agony as his body started to shimmer. "Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed. "Hmm, I could use a jutsu to dull the pain but I don't know what good it would do…Yamato-Taichou, could you use your Mokuton Jutsu to repair the roof and make a bed to keep Naruto on. We can go look through Orochimaru's research to see if anything similar to, this,…" she pointed at Naruto "…has happened before."

"Very well" Yamato said, clasping his hands together simultaneously repairing the roof and making a bet to keep Naruto on for the time being. Then he, Sakura and Sai left and went to search the base for Orochimaru's research data.

By nine o'clock the next day Sakura, Yamato and Sai couldn't find anything so Sakura went to check on Naruto. Naruto was still covered by a green light, but now his hair had turned red and grown out so it, when he was standing, would reach about halfway down his back. Sakura couldn't be sure either, but it seemed that his hips had widened and his waist had shrunk a little.

6 hours later, Sakura, still having failed to find anything related to the phenomena that was changing her friend, came up with a theory and she went to Yamato. She said "come with me taichou." Yamato and Sakura went to where Naruto was still covered in the green light, though this time the widened hips and shrunken waist were now quite evident, as were the two lumps on his chest. "I've come up with a theory, though I would have to talk with a Byakugan user to confirm it, but I _think_ that, if I remember correctly, peoples chakra vibrates with a different frequency from person to person, and the vibrations are further defined by gender. The chakra that a female has, vibrates at a higher level than a man's. That's why there are more female medic-nins than there are male. A faster vibratory rate means that there is less time between chakra…well, pulses I suppose would fit best, making it easier to mould and control your chakra. Are you with me so far?"

"Kind of."

"Well, that will do. What I think happened is that when Sasuke stabbed Naruto it went straight into his chakra well and, because of the lightning charging through it, caused his chakra to vibrate at a higher frequency that it normally would and now, his body is not slowing the vibratory rate of his chakra down, but changing his body to adapt to the new chakra. Now this has probably only happened because of his being a Jinchuuriki. Buutttt…"

Yamato sighed and said "Naruto will still try to control his chakra the same way that he always has, but now that the…vibratory rate was it?…" Sakura nodded "…has gotten closer together, he will end up using more in his jutsu than is necessary, causing some to fail completely."

"And others to go out of control, yes."

Yamato sighed and said "he'll have to be sidelined while he relearns how to use his chakra."

"Naruto…" Sakura said sadly, looking at her friend.

The green glow dissipated and Naruto stirred a little and started to sit up and then lay back down. Yamato asked "what just happened?"

Sakura sighed and said "he's probably sleeping now that the changes are completed."

Yamato's eyes widened and he exclaimed "sleeping?"

"Yes, it can't have been easy on his body, going through such a drastic change all at once. Well, we'd better see if we can find an armoury then."

"An armoury?" Sai asked in confusion, coming in at the end of the conversation.

"Well, he can't exactly go back to Konoha dressed like that, can he?"

"No, I guess not."

"You guess not…"

"Now just calm down Sakura."

"I guess he really is dickless now" Sai, completely ignoring Sakura's current state, said just before getting nailed by a chakra reinforced punch thanks to Sakura.

Two hours later Yamato found the armoury and called Sai and Sakura with directions to his position. Soon enough they joined him in the armoury and he said "Sakura, it's up to you now…we don't really have any experience in this part…"

"Right" Sakura said as she entered the room. She went directly to the part where all the female clothes were and started going through them. Soon enough she found some clothes that would fit Naruto. She picked them up and called out "all done Yamato-Taichou."

"Sakura, come over here." Sakura went over to where Yamato was checking out the weapons that Orochimaru had collected. There were many different weapons, ranging from bows to spears and from shuriken to swords. "You know Naruto better than any of us, what do you think that he…uhh…she…would like?"

"Hmm, well, it's been more than two years that I haven't seen him for, but in the time that I've known him, he's only ever used kunai and shuriken."

"Hmm, that's no good then."

"Why's that?"

"Because, as she is now she shouldn't be able to enter into a melee fight like she used to."

"Oh, I see…so, what do you suggest?"

Yamato sighed and said "I don't really know myself."

"Why don't we let her decide for herself, I mean, there are more than enough non-melee weapons here."

"Ooh, what're these…" Sakura said as she went to touch one of two colourful daggers in front of her(see here). She went to touch one when Yamato grabbed her arm and said "don't touch that!"

"Wha…Why not?"

"Those daggers look like the twin daggers of Mito Uzumaki…the first Hokage's wife. They, if the reports are true, can only be handled by an Uzumaki without immense pain, or even death, resulting…how in the world _did_ Orochimaru get his hands on these?"

"Well, at the very least we have found some weapons that Naruto can use" Sai said.

"Yes. Sakura, you take those clothes to Naruto and we'll keep on looking here to see what else Orochimaru has sequestered away."

"Hai, Yamato-Taichou."


	2. Sakura's Surprise

When Naruto woke up early the next morning it was to find Sakura sleeping with her head slumped forward on one of two chairs that Yamato had created. On the other one were the clothes that Sakura had picked out for her teammate. Naruto stirred and sat up, swinging her legs off the side of the bed, in the process bumping Sakura and waking her up. Sakura jumped in her seat, startled awake by Naruto's kicking her. She looked up and saw a red headed beauty staring back at her, she also saw that the luscious red hair of her friend had now, once again, doubled in length as it now reached down to just passed her shapely ass. "Hey Naruto, how do you feel?" Sakura asked, with an apologetic smile on her face.

"Fine, except for the fact that I had a..." Naruto gasped at hearing a voice saying the words that were passing his mouth a few octaves higher than he was used to. "What the...?"

"Naruto, before I say anything else, I just want to tell you to remain calm, alright?"

"Remain calm? What are you...?"

"Do you remember what happened when we met Sasuke?"

"Yeah, the teme ran me through with his damned ninjato."

"Yes. Well, it seems that when Sasuke stabbed you with his lightning re-enforced blade the vibratory rate of your chakra got increased as a side effect."

"And?" Naruto asked, not getting at what Sakura was trying as hard as she could to avoid saying directly.

"Well, you know that inside your body your chakra vibrates at different rates for different people?"

Naruto thought back to his training trip with Jiraiya and said "yeah, I think that I remember  
ero-sennin saying something about that on our training trip."

"Good, well, what Jiraiya probably didn't tell you was that the rate of vibrations is further increased if the person is female."

"And? What has that got to do with me?"

Sakura sighed and said "when Sasuke ran you through he increased the vibratory rate of your chakra. Now, normally a person would either die or lose the ability to control their chakra completely from such an event, due to the Kyuubi being sealed inside you though, that seems to not be the case."

"What're you..."

Sakura sighed and said "Naruto, to deal with the change in your chakra your body decided that, rather than attempt to slow the vibrations of your chakra down to what they were previously, that it would be either better, or at least easier to adapt your body to deal with the change." "What!" Naruto exclaimed, understanding what Sakura was saying. Sakura, however, thought that Naruto still didn't understand and said "Naruto, I'm sorry, but until Tsunade-sama can run some proper tests in Konoha, and, unless they find a way to change back, you will be a Kunoichi."

"A..."

"Come on, it's not _that_ bad, really."

"Can you leave Sakura?" Naruto asked, wanting to be alone for now.

"Yeah, sure thing" Sakura replied. "I got some clothes that should fit you for when you decide to come out...oh, and when you're done getting changed, Yamato-Taichō wants to see you in the armoury."

"alright, and thanks, I guess." About half an hour later Naruto thought to herself 'well, there's no use moping about here, I might as well see what Sakura managed to get for me.' Naruto got up, moved to the chair, picked up the clothes, and then moved back to lay them out on the bed. Naruto, when she had completely laid all of the clothes out on the bed she looked at them and thought to herself 'thank god, no more orange!' on the bed were some tight fitting, green leather pants that had some kind of weird seals etched into them and showed the outside of the wearers thighs, a matching green top that bared her midriff with white sleeves that reached just before her wrist, also, next to the shirt there was a cord of brown leather that Naruto had no clue as to what it was for. There were brown leather boots that reached just under Naruto's knees. There was also a green, hooded, cloak that had sleeves that reached halfway down Naruto's bicep there was also two brown belts that each had different loops to go through on the pants, one of them had an attachment on it that was clearly designed for a sword to be attached to it and the other one had two loops on the back of which Naruto had no idea as to their purpose. Sakura had also thoughtfully found another brown leather cord that Naruto could use to tie her long hair with. Naruto donned the clothes that her friend had acquired for her and found that they fit perfectly. She also found, to her surprise, that the pants that she was wearing in no way restricted her movement, in fact, she found that they were easier to move around in than what the ones that she had as a man were. She also found that the cloak kept her amazingly warm, even in the cold of the room that she was in. After she tied her hair into a ponytail with the leather cord she left to search for Yamato-Taichō. After searching through halls for about twenty minutes she finally found Yamato-Taichō, Sai and Sakura gathered in the armoury, still cataloguing various weapons and clothing that the Snake Sannin had acquired over the years. Naruto announced "hey, how is everyone?"

Sakura, Sai and Yamato turned around and, almost immediately, Yamato's nose streamed blood and he flew backwards at the sight of the beauty that Naruto had become. When he had recovered he said "right, well then...uh hmm...oh yes, Naruto, for the time being I don't want you involved in any combat, alright?"

"Yeah, sure thing, I was going to suggest that myself."

"Eh? You were?"

"Yeah, I mean, hell, I was tripping all over the place on my way here, I don't even want to consider how that would affect me in combat."

"Well, that's good" Yamato said while he was thinking _'she's a hell of a lot smarter, not to mention, tactically more brilliant, than anyone has ever given her credit for.' _Yamato then went on to say, "so, with that said, there is something here that I think should belong to you. Although I have absolutely no idea as to how they came to be in Orochimaru's possession to begin with."

"What?" Naruto asked, not knowing what Orochimaru could possess that would have anything remotely to do with her.

"Over here are some rather unique weapons, actually, they are so unique that only very few people can use."

"Then why..."

"Because, Naruto, your family created them."

"My famil..."

"Or rather, the Uzumaki's of Uzushiogakure."

"Alright, so what does it have to do with me?"

"You personally, nothing really. It's just that the way these things are made, only Uzumaki can use them."

"Alright then, where are they?"

"Over there" Yamato said, pointing at the shelf that the two daggers were on.

Naruto moved over to them and picked them up in their sheathes. She then put them back down and withdrew one of them. It had a golden blade with a red cross-guard that, where the blade met the hilt, there was a red circle that had an epigraph of two golden birds fighting. At the tip of the cross-guard there were smaller blades that extended in the same direction as the blade itself. The handle of the hilt itself was black with the pommel red. When the blade had been completely drawn Naruto felt her chakra get drained and forced into the blade, which, somehow, was surrounded by fire, causing Naruto to drop it. When the blade had left her hand . Naruto turned it around in her right hand and then, after inspecting it, returned it to its sheathe and then withdrew the second one. This one was almost identical to the previous one, except that it was completely golden and, instead of having an epigraph of two birds, there was an eye with the edges open and a line extending from the edges of each opening, Naruto felt her chakra being forced into the blade again, this time, instead of the blade being surrounded by fire, this time it was lightning. Naruto, this time, was expecting something to happen and kept hold of the blade. Naruto turned it around in her left hand, having an instinctual feeling that the first blade should be used in the right hand and the second in the left. She returned the second dagger to its sheathe and saw that, on the sheathes, there were attachments that matched those of the second belt that she was wearing. She attached them to the back of her belt and, somehow, felt like there was something mission. Naruto went to the tantō's lining the wall next to where she found the blades and, seeing one that she liked, picked it up and attached it to her hip using the attachment on her belt. She still felt that there was something missing in her attire. She looked right and saw a rack of bows lining the wall towards the end of the room and went to them. She searched through them, automatically discarding most of them until she found what she was looking for. It was a green re-curve bow that looked eerily similar to a snake, right down to the head at the top end of the bow. Naruto picked it up and attached it to a hook on the back of her new cloak, along with a quiver that she attached to a hook on the opposite side of the belt that was now carrying her tantō. With the bow on her back and the quiver at her hip Naruto felt that, for the first time in her life, she was complete.

Naruto called out "I'm ready now" causing all three of her teammates to look up at her and saw that she was carrying a bow on her back. Sakura, not having the slightest clue as to why her teammate was carrying a bow on her back, immediately assumed that she had picked it up because she liked the look of it. Sakura started to charge at Naruto to beat the shit out of her for doing something stupid like trying to use a weapon that she has no experience with. Before she could get too far though, Naruto quickly withdrew her bow from her back, at the same time taking an arrow from her quiver at her hip, drew back and let fly. It shot right past Sakura's ear, giving her a haircut and causing her to trip over in shock. Naruto was surprised as well as, even though she had used her trick that managed to harden the arrow, the arrow, after being shot from the bow, took on a green aura as it flew. "Next time Sakura, I won't miss."

"What was...?" Sakura asked quietly from her position, sprawled on the ground. "How did you...?"

"Sakura, I'm sick of your attitude. You won't be hitting _me_ again."

"What?"

"When did you learn to use a bow like that Naruto?" Yamato asked, having seen the interaction between the two long-time teammates from where he was near some Zanbatō.

"On the training trip with Jiraiya."

"Hmm, I thought that Jiraiya-sama didn't know how to use a bow?"

"He doesn't."

"Then how?"

"Well, apparently, one of the training methods that Jiraiya likes to use, is telling me to give him my kunai, shuriken and bag, and then, give me three kunai back and tell me 'to survive' for three months in the river country."

"How did you...? I mean there are...!"

"Yeah, the river country makes the animals in the Forest of Death look like newly born kittens."

"So how?"

"Simple really, a few days in I had tried to kill one of them to have some meat for dinner, but all that ended up happening, was the kunai being bent completely out of shape and it charging at me for trying to attack it. After that I tried making a trap for it. That failed spectacularly. Then I tried making some spears, but that didn't work either. After a while I succumbed to hunger and fainted. When I woke up I was in a house of some sort. When I got up the lady that was taking care of me told me that her son found me lying on the ground, unconscious, and it looked like I had been there for a while. After that I found that they had been having problems with another animal, this one I could actually take care of. When I did, they trained me in the use of one of the re-curve bows that they make and making the arrows that go with them."

"Then why haven't I seen you with it?" Sakura asked, shocked, both at the fact that Naruto could use a ranged weapon with an insane amount of accuracy and that Jiraiya left Naruto in the middle of a forest for months on end.

"Simple, I was training with it every night after Ero-Sennin went to sleep, eventually it got worn out and broke and I've never had the chance to get a replacement."

'Dear Kami it looks like it is me that will need to watch what I do around Naruto now!' Sakura thought in panic at the way that Naruto was acting.

"Okay, so, are we ready to go now?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, I think so" Yamato said "Sakura, Sai, is there anything else that you wish to do here?"

"No, I've got everything that I need" Sakura said, getting up, off the floor.

"I have everything that I will be needing" Sai called out from where he was.

"Alright then, there should be a team arriving from Konoha soon so we can probably leave now" Yamato said as he moved to a clear space on the wall and placed his hands on the wall. After he did so a staircase formed leading up to the surface. Team Kakashi left the underground base via the staircase that Yamato had just created and, before they left, Yamato stamped on the ground after doing a handseal, causing a cover to extend out, over the opening. They then walked, in consideration to Naruto's reduced control over her chakra, in the direction of Konoha.


	3. Uzumaki x 3

As Team Kakashi was entering through the Konohagakure gates team Kurenai was leaving for a mission, when Team Kakashi went to greet Team Kurenai Kiba, seeing a red headed beauty that he had never seen before along with Team Kakashi, moving close to her in a manner that he thought made him seem like an alpha male, he asked, "hey, what's your name hot stuff?"

Hinata tried to apologise for her teammates actions before Naruto responded by taking a step forward and, drawing her short sword from where it was on her hip, rested it against Kiba's crown jewels and, in a calmly threatening manner, said "if you try something like this again, dog-boy, I'll make you into even less of a man than you already are!"

Kiba started sweating and squeaked out "okay" before backing away from the redhead on his  
tip-toes.

Yamato Taichō said "I'm sorry to be leaving so soon, but we really need to report in to the Hokage."

"Of course" Kurenai replied, "we need to get going ourselves." Team Kurenai and Team Kakashi moved off in opposite directions.

When Team Kakashi arrived in the Hokage's office Tsunade asked, "so, how did the mission go?"

"I'm afraid that the mission was a failure. As the message that I sent to you said, we did everything correctly and then, due to various unavoidable circumstances, it all went to hell and Naruto ended up getting stabbed by Sasuke."

Tsunade frowned before asking "so, that's Naruto then is it?"

"Yeah, sure is baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed with a shit-eating grin on her face before Tsunade threw an eraser at her.

"Well, Sakura has also sent me a message telling me about what happened and I've consulted with medics from the Hyūga clan and they agree with Sakura's diagnosis."

"Alright, so if you know what the problem is, then surely you can..."

"I'm afraid that there's nothing that I can do for you."

"Wha...?"

Tsunade said "unfortunately, Konoha's #1 unpredictable ninja has struck again, this situation has never once arisen before. The only reason that it did is because the Kyūbi sealed inside you, otherwise you would have died, I'm sorry but the only way that I can think of to return you to the way that you were before, would be to run you through again, and even then, there's no way of knowing if it would actually work as the frequency of the Raiton chakra would need to be very precise. I'm sorry, but even if you did want to take the chance I can't let you. You're just too valuable from a logistical point of view."

"Well, alright then, if there really is nothing that you can do I'll just have to learn to fight in this form."

Tsunade smiled in a weird way and said "I suppose I could have expected nothing else really. Alright then, Team Kakashi, you are dismissed." As the members of Team Kakashi turned around to leave Tsunade's office Tsunade said "Naruto, I'd like you to stay behind if that's alright."

"Sure thing" Naruto replied, not having any pressing matters to attend to. The other members of Team Kakashi left, leaving the two women in the room. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Nothing much really, it's just that the message that I received from Yamato also mentioned that you managed to recover Uzumaki Mito's blades?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Can I see them?"

"Sure, I guess, but Yamato-Taichō said that only an Uzumaki can hold them."

"You fool" Tsunade said in a laughing tone, "my grandmother was the original owner of those blades that you are wearing."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh, then I guess that these rightfully belong to you then" Naruto said, removing the blades from her belt and placing them on Tsunade's desk.

"Oh, get that look off of your face" Tsunade said as she picked them up and withdrew them, looking them over as Naruto had done previously. "You are welcome to them. It's just that my grandmother used to let me play with them when I was a child. Holding them like this is nostalgic, that's all."

"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Yeah, you can have that bow too."

"What are you saying?"

"That bow on your back, it belonged to my grandmother as well. You see Naruto, before Uzushiogakure was wiped out there were three things that the ninja that came from there were extremely well known for. The first and foremost was their sealing abilities. The second was their lack of chakra based jutsu. The third was their exceedingly long life-spans. That last one was why Uzushiogakure was also known as The Village of Longevity. They were also known to incorporate their skill with seals into their weapons. That led to the invention of the Uzumaki blades. The thing about the Uzumaki blades is that they drain a users chakra forcefully, which means that, when they are being used, they use the same amount of chakra continuously. That's why the Uzumaki ninja also took along two other types of weapon, a bow, which also incorporated their sealing arts into it along with an ordinary tantō; for use when they needed to fight without the use of their chakra. When you were arming yourself you had a feeling that something was missing before you had all three, didn't you?"

"Yeah, how'd you know that?"

"Those clothes that you're wearing, whether they are the real thing or not, I don't know, but at the very least, they are based on the design of the Uzumaki clans ninja clothes. That's part of the reason why you felt something amiss, I would say that you felt it more keenly, because you are the offspring of an Uzumaki rather than the grandchild of one."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was growing up my mother gave me a set like that, except I felt nothing from it. That's why I didn't focus on that part of my heritage and more on the ninjutsu of my grandfathers' clan." Tsunade then handed the blades back to Naruto and said, "Alright, that's all I wanted."

"Thanks" Naruto replied as she exited the room.

Once she was alone, Tsunade thought 'Naruto is going to need someone to teach him...uh...her, how to use those blades and I can't do it, neither can anyone else in Konoha. Well, I suppose that 'she' will probably be able to teach Naruto how to use them.' Tsunade then called out "Shizune" and her assistant came running in from her office a few doors down. When Shizune was in her office Tsunade ordered "Shizune, I need you to get me Hyūga Neji, Inuzuka Hana, Rock Lee and Uzuki Yūgao."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama" Shizune said, scurrying off.

Soon enough all of the shinobi that Tsunade had requested arrived in her office and she said "for this mission Yūgao, you will be in charge. The mission is to find and locate one, Uzumaki Naoko."

"Uzumaki? As in Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Yes" Tsunade replied.

"Is there any relation?" Neji asked.

"Yes. I'm afraid so" Tsunade replied. "She's his Aunt."

"Wait, Naruto has family!" Neji exclaimed. "Why wasn't he..."

Tsunade sighed and said "neither the elders nor the Sandaime knew that she was still alive; and even if they did, the elders wouldn't have told Naruto as it would, in their minds, give him something to live for other than 'protect the village at all costs'."

"Well, we all know how that turned out now then, don't we?" Neji asked, derisively.

"Yes, well, regardless. I want you to seek out and find Uzumaki Naoko. This is an A-Rank mission. Hana she should smell similar to Naruto, Neji, here's a photo of her. That will be all."

"Uh, Tsunade sama..." Neji trailed off.

"Yes Neji?"

"Where would be a good place to start our search at?"

"Hmm...well, last I heard of her she was in the Port on the far side of Tea Country."

"Alright, we shall move out right away then" Yūgao said as she and the rest of her team left Tsunade's office.

Three days later Yūgao and her team arrived in the port city about four hours before the sun set for the night. Yūgao said "alright, let's go and get a hotel room for tonight first and then we can start looking around for Uzumaki Naoko" the four Konoha-nin then proceeded to search for a hotel to spend the night in before they started their search. They found one that they deemed suitable and then, after paying for two days' stay in advance they went to their room and left their bags in there before leaving to search for their target. As they exited the hotel lobby Yūgao outlined their plan; "Alright, Lee, you will go with Neji and I'll be with Hana. Okay, you two search the park and the docks and we'll take the market."

There was a chorus of "Hai" and they left in the direction of their respective destinations.

Yūgao and Hana quickly reached their destination and wandered around while looking for their target. After strolling around the marketplace for half an hour or so they sighted their target and, not so discretely, followed her, Naoko, who was carrying a basket full of groceries sensed that she was being followed and thought 'hmm...that's odd. Ah well, probably just my imagination...even so...' she then stopped and looked into a stall for a while and sensed the presences stop as well. 'Hmm,' Naoko thought 'that almost proves it, hn, rookies, letting their guard down around an Uzumaki.'

Meanwhile with Yūgao and Hana, Yūgao, being stopped by Hana placing an arm on her chest, asked "what is it?"

"She's stopped" Hana replied quietly.

"Stopped? You don't think that she..."

"No, she can't know that we're following her, we've been too careful for that."

"Then why..."

"Probably so she can get more groceries, now shut up will you?"

"Very well."

Naoko, after buying something from the stall to keep up the ruse of her not knowing that there was anyone following her, continued on her way home. But, before she could get too far, she stopped and looked into the window of a cake store and, using the window to look behind her, saw Yūgao and Hana hiding on the roof on the opposite side of the street that she was on. She frowned as she saw the signature animal of the Inuzuka clan as well as Hana's facial markings. Naoko thought 'so, it's Konoha this time is it? And with an Inuzuka no less,' Naoko smiled at what she was about to do and then, waving through the reflection of the window at the Konoha shinobi as she released a smoke bomb, obscuring her tails' sight, as she activated four of the seals that she had sewn into the cloak that she was wearing, these ones completely erased the scent of the one wearing it. She then activated another seal array that allowed her to instantaneously teleport to where the corresponding array was, in this case, at her house. Once she was there she set about unpacking her shopping.

Yūgao looked at Hana slightly irritated "so, 'she hasn't spotted us' huh?"

"Hey, how was I to know that she was that skilled, she must be a sensor type too."

"Alright, alright, I know, it's not your fault. Let's head back to the hotel, I've a feeling that lee and Neji will be similarly unsuccessful in their attempts as well."

Lee and Neji had searched the docks thoroughly and turned up little to no results. So now they were headed to the park where a kindly bartender had informed them that they could find a redheaded female that could almost always be found. So that's what they were doing. Neji, his Byakugan activated, could see the entirety of the park and saw an image of a woman around their age that could only be the one that the bartender had told them about. "Lee, I've found her."

"Yosh!" Lee exclaimed, "there's no doubt in my mind that the power of youth has allowed us to complete our mission this early!"

"Yes, well, she's near the pond in the centre of the park."

"Yosh!" Lee yelled as he got ready to speed towards where Neji had informed him that their target was.

"Lee. It might be better if we go slowly for this" Neji suggested.

"Hmm. Very well" Lee said, agreeing with Neji looking very serious.

Neji sighed at his teammate's antics and started to walk towards the person that he had identified. As Neji walked he thought 'although, if she's anything like Naruto then I don't think that we will have anything to worry about, we can just trick her.'

When they got to the redheads location they walked up to her and Neji stood in front of her and her easel. She looked up and said, "move it or lose it, buster." Neji, stunned at the reaction that he got from the redhead, took a step back in shock. The redhead then went back to what she was doing before Neji and Lee had approached her, thinking 'a Hyūga eh?'

Lee moved around to look at what she was doing and he was mightily impressed. She had been painting, in amazing detail, the ducks in the pond in front of her. "Neji, come and look at this!" lee exclaimed.

Neji came around to look at what Lee had seen and he was also impressed at the quality of work that was being done. He thought 'she's so good...it's almost a pity that I'm going to...!' just then the redhead made a sign with her hands that caused everything around her to be caught in an insanely bright light, due to her cloak glowing. She was alright however, as she had donned a pair of sunglasses specifically designed for countering the seal array that she had just activated. As Neji and Lee were trying to regain their sight, the redhead packed up her gear and, before picking it up and leaving, she went through a set of handseals and the cloak turned black. The cloak was now completely eliminating any trace of her chakra. The redhead then proceeded to leave the park and head for home.


	4. Unpredictable Ninja x 3

After they had failed to capture the redhead Neji and lee went back to their hotel, having decided that it would be fruitless to continue their search. When they got there they ran into Yūgao and Hana in the lobby. Hana asked, "So, you came up empty too huh?"

"Yes. Though not entirely."

"What do you mean 'not entirely'?"

"We found a redhead that seemed to be about our age."

"Your age? There's no way that Naoko could be...unless..."

"She has a daughter" Yūgao supplied, finishing Hana's thought.

"Yes, unfortunately she seems to be just as cunning as Naruto," Neji said, thinking back on what had happened at the park.

"Excuse me?" Hana asked, not understanding what Neji meant.

"She was wearing this weird cloak that she somehow managed to blind us with and, this is just a theory, it may also have been what concealed her presence when she left."

"What?" Yūgao asked.

"When she blinded us I could still feel her presence for about thirty seconds, then it just disappeared. I can't think of any other way to explain it."

Yūgao sighed and said, "So, the legendary sealing capabilities of the Uzumaki live on."

"Excuse me?" Lee asked, not having heard of an Uzumaki clan.

"I'm not sure what the Hyūga tell their children, but in the Inuzuka we learn about all the different villages and their specialties. I don't mean 'The Five Great Shinobi Nations', but all of the smaller villages. In recent times there has been more focus on ones that use traditional ninja skills, but back before you guys were born there was a village called Uzushiogakure."

As Hana informed them of the former existence of a village that they didn't know about Neji looked up in surprise and said, "No, in the Hyūga it's mostly about loyalty, both to the Main Branch of the Hyūga and to Konoha."

"I see, well then, I'll continue. Although Yūgao already knows this, I think that it would probably be best for you two to as well."

Neji looked at Yūgao and frowned as he asked, "What don't we know?"

Yūgao looked up and sighed. She said, "Hana, I'll tell them, after all, I know even more than you."

"Alright," Hana said.

"Okay, I'll start with Uzushiogakure's specialty." Neji looked interested, wanting to know more about the Shinobi World's history. Lee looked interested simply because he wanted to be able to better fight against the redhead that they had come across earlier. "The ninja of Uzushiogakure were masters of Fūinjutsu." Seeing that her audience was about to say something, Yūgao raised her hand and said, "Don't interrupt, all the questions that you have will probably be answered anyway." When she saw that the questions had been put on hold she continued, "Uzushiogakure unlike any other village, either of it's time, or ours. You see, it was a village entirely consisting of one clan, the Uzumaki."

"One Clan! How many were there?" Neji exclaimed, having been born into a large clan like the Hyūga.

"Well over 500." Neji's eyes widened when he heard the number. Before he could say anything, Yūgao continued, "but what was even scarier than their Fūinjutsu, was their belief that, above all, one thing should be protected, their family. That, along with the emergence of Uchiha as a world power, led to the creation of a type of weapon unique to their village. The weapons of Uzushiogakure were both prized and feared around the world, prized because of the varying types of abilities that they granted, feared because only an Uzumaki could use them."

"Do you mean to tell me that the Uzushiogakure ninja actually found a way to limit the number of people that can use a specific weapon?" Neji asked.

"Oh no, anybody can use them, it's just that if anyone outside the Uzumaki clan uses them the weapons will turn on the user."

"What? So the weapons are alive?"

"No, they forcibly draw the users chakra from them."

"That's not..."

Yūgao smiled and said, "I know, if you think about it logically, there's no way that that should be possible, right?" Neji nodded. "Well, think of what Naruto has done, can you apply logic to him?"

"Well, that's true."

"Now, imagine a village full of people just as unpredictable as Naruto and you can see why some of the Shinobi Nations would want to destroy it. As a matter of fact, that symbol on the back of your flak jacket, Lee, it the symbol of Uzushiogakure."

"So you're saying that the ninja of Uzushiogakure were all ninja-tool users?

"Yes."

"Thank God Tenten isn't here."

"Why?"

"She'd be all gaga after hearing that...Wait a second though, how do you know all this?"

"I was wondering when you'd get to that. Naruto's mother, Uzumaki Kushina, was my Jounin-sensei when I graduated the academy."

"Then if you knew who his parents were then why didn't you tell him?"

"The Sandaime made a law that said basically, if you tell anyone who Naruto's parents are, you will be killed, it was probably to protect the village. I asked to be allowed to teach him some jutsu but the Sandaime claimed that, since the villagers already hated him, there was no need to put fuel on the fire."

"Wait a second wouldn't Naruto's mother have had some of these weapons that you are telling us about?"

"Yes, she actually had many of them, but when we went to retrieve them the day after we found her body they were gone. We practically tore up the town looking for them, since we didn't want anyone to be injured because of them, but no luck I'm afraid."

"I see," Neji said.

"Well, no matter, we'll just have to start our search over tomorrow."

"Well, we'll be seeing you tomorrow," Neji said as he and Lee left to go to their room.

Meanwhile, at Naoko's house the redhead that Neji and Lee had met, Naoko's daughter Noriko, entered through the front door. She turned to look at her mother, who had started to cook their dinner, and said "Hi mum, how were the markets?"

"Good, I ran in to some shinobi from Konoha today."

"Really? That's odd. So did I."

"Ohh, so who was it?"

"I don't know, but at the very least there was someone from the Hyūga clan."

"What about the second one?"

"Second one?" Noriko asked with a slight blush.

"Yes, Konoha shinobi move in platoons of four Noriko, how many times have I told you that?"

"Well, he wasn't from one of the clans, I don't think."

"Why do you say this?"

"Well, you told me that the clans will usually have some kind of distinguishing trait, right?"

"Yes. Why are you asking me this? You know I've told you that many times before."

"Well, there was certainly a distinguishing feature on the second one."

"And...well, what is it?"

"His eyebrows," Noriko stated.

Naoko, in shock, asked, "His eyebrows?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm just having difficulty in understanding how eyebrows could be considered a distinguishing feature," Naoko said as she finished cooking the fish that she had acquired earlier.

"The eyebrows were...were..." Noriko said as blood started to trickle down from her nose.

Naoko thought 'how can this be, how can some ninja that she just met cause her to be so...so...urgh!' she then asked, "So, how'd you get away?"

"I blinded them then hid my chakra with the cloak that you made. I think that the Hyūga thought that he had the drop on me just before I activated the seals."

Naoko laughed at the picture that her daughter was painting and said "I wish I could've seen his face, a Hyūga, prized for their sight, blinded by a seal. That said, I want your opinion on this Noriko."

"Opinion on what?"

"Do you want to lead them on for a few days, or just meet them outright?"

"Hmm," Noriko let out thoughtfully. Then she thought of the green-clad ninja and said "I think that we should meet them, find out what they want, and then decide what to do."

Naoko smiled as she thought 'I thought so'. She then said, "Alright, we'll meet them tomorrow afternoon. That should give you time to finish your painting of the ducks."

Noriko's face paled at the discovery that her mother actually knew what she was doing when she was meant to be practicing the Fūinjutsu that her mother was teaching her.

At noon the next day, after Noriko finished painting the ducks, she packed up her easel and canvas and rushed to the cafe that she had been told to meet her mother at. When she got there she saw that her mother was sipping a cup of coffee and a glass of Autumnal Temptations(a mocktail), was waiting for her on the table in front of the opposite seat. She sat down in the seat and said "you know that they're on the roof over there, right?"

"Oh yes, I was just waiting for you to arrive before calling them over here, speaking of which, you're two minutes late."

"Uh, sorry, it took longer than I thought it would to get the bulrushes finished."

"Well, no problem...ah, waiter!" Naoko called out. When the waiter was there she said "there are some people on the rooftop over there." The waiter looked up at them as Naoko continued to talk "would it be possible for you to give them a glass of water and a message for me?"

"Yes it would ma'am."

"Thank you, oh yes, and bring the glass here before you take it to them please."

"Very well ma'am. What is the message that you would like me to pass along?"

"To cool down," Naoko said as she smiled.

"Very well ma'am" the waiter said as he went and got a glass of chilled water from the bar. When he brought it back she touched the bottom of it with her finger and said "there you go, and thank you."

Noriko looked at her mother and asked "did you just..."

"Yes, I carved a seal into the bottom of that cup."

"But won't that ruin the cup?"

"No, it's set to go off once and once only."

"Okay, so what does it do?"

Naoko smiled and said "you'll see. Just watch."

Meanwhile on top of the roof a fierce discussion was taking place. Lee was saying, "Why don't we just move in on them now? They clearly know that we're here."

"While I do agree with you Lee, there's no actual proof that they know that we're..." Hana said as the door to the roof opened up. They looked up at the sound of the door opening and, when the waiter was closer, Hana asked, "What are you doing up here, isn't your job to cater for that cafe..." as she finished her question she realised that the waiters presence could only mean one thing, that the two redheads knew that they were up there.

The waiter extended the glass to Hana and said "the redheaded lady asked me to give you a message."

"What is it?" Hana asked as she retrieved the glass from the waiter.

"She said to tell you to cool down."

As the waiter relayed the message the water in the cup burst into a mini-typhoon, drenching Hana's head and hair. Hana's eyes widened in confusion, then they narrowed in rage as she ground out, "I'm going to kill her!" just then they heard the laughter of two redheads outside the cafe. The four shinobi dropped down to the street opposite Naoko and Noriko, ostensibly to go over and talk rationally with Naoko, but in reality Yūgao, Lee and Neji were attempting to stop a fuming Hana from destroying the cafe. When they got to the table that Naoko and Noriko were sitting at Naoko said "please, take a seat," causing Hana's already considerable amount of anger to rise a bit more. Naoko, seeing the drenched Hana, said "oh, did you take that glass?"

"Yes" Hana angrily replied.

"Then I apologise."

"Huh?"

Naoko turned to her daughter and said, "I see what you mean," as she looked at lee. "Although, I fail to comprehend the reason for your infa..." Noriko quickly covered her mother's mouth with her hand as her face turned red. When Naoko raised her hands in front of her, as if to say 'alright, alright, I'm done messing with you', Noriko removed her hand. Naoko turned to Yūgao and said "so, what is it that you want?"

"No beating around the bush then?" Yūgao asked.

"My sister wouldn't train a shinobi to do so."

"How did..."

"Oh come on, surely you don't think that I can't tell who my sister trained? Now, spit it out, what could one of The Five Great Shinobi Nations, want with little old me? Surely you aren't thinking of trying to get me to join Konoha now, are you?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"Tsunade-sama asked us to come here to tell you something. Depending on how you react to that information we have been ordered to act either of two ways."

"I see, and what way's would that be?"

"Leave you be, or leave you dead."

"I see, do go on."

"Very well. First off we are to inform you that the day of your sister's death she gave birth."

"Yeah, and it was a stillborn, that is no news to me."

"I see, so that's what they told you."

"What?" Naoko demanded, seeing where the conversation was going, and not liking it one bit.

"In all fairness, it was a lie told to the majority of the village too, but Naruto survived."

"Naruto?" Naoko asked, appalled at the name chosen by Kushina. She then commented, "Well, I suppose that that is a name that she would choose, that ramen addict."

"Ramen addict?" Neji asked. He looked at Lee and said, "it would appear that a love for ramen is hardwired into Naruto's DNA."

"Excuse me?" Naoko asked.

"Well, when Naruto is not training, then he can usually be found at The Ichiraku Ramen Stand."

"So, what kind does this Naruto like?" Noriko asked.

"I don't really think that he has a favourite," Neji replied, "granted, they're all the same to me."

"All the same? How dare you!" Noriko exclaimed, in shock as to how someone could so underestimate the gloriousness that is ramen.

Naoko sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose and said "and there's another one...I don't believe that of all the things that my mother could pass on that would be the one thing that survives."

"Well...anyway...so, will you come to Konoha with us, or not?"

"Yes, of course I will. Just out of curiosity, why only now are you informing me that my kin still survives?"

"We don't really know. Tsunade-sama didn't give us a reason, merely to contact you and to then return back to Konoha."

"I see." Naoko said as she thought, 'So this Naruto probably came upon some Dyrnwyn and Tsunade, being related to an Uzumaki, realised that someone would need to teach Naruto how to use them.' She then asked, "So, what's Naruto like?" as she and Noriko got up from their seats.

Neji replied, "From what I've seen so far he seems to be somewhat similar to you."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He's considered by many to be Konoha's #1 Unpredictable Ninja."

"Is that so?" Naoko asked. "Well well, it would seem that we shall get along swimmingly then. For now though, we'll meet you on the road out of this city in about an hour, that should give you enough time to get there, shouldn't it?"

"Yes, but you don't need to worry about us, that's more than enough time. You should be more concerned about getting there yourself rather than us...After all, you will be taking more than..."

Naoko laughed and said "never you mind about me and Noriko, we'll be packed up long before you."

"Huh?" Neji said, "but you've..."

"Look, never mind about them," Yūgao said as she had a feeling that she knew what Naoko was going to do.


	5. Return of the Uzumaki

Naoko and Noriko reached the entrance to the town five minutes before Yūgao's team after changing their clothes and sealing their entire house into a leather parchment that Naoko had laid below the foundations when it was being built. When Yūgao's team got there they saw that Noriko was wearing black, tight-fit, pants that had seals inscribed on them and a short-sleeved, red, tunic with a brown leather belt that had two knives attached to the back of it. She also had a short sword attached to her hip. She had knee-high, brown, lace-up leather boots. Naoko was wearing tight-fit green pants that had different seals on them to those her daughter had, but identical to those on Naruto's and green, knee-high, leather boots that had a series of green plates that extended from the top of the boot to protect her knees. She had on two belts; one of them had a short-sword and a quiver on either hip. The second had attached to the back of it another short-sword; this one though was far more ornate than the one on her hip. Next to it was a parrying dagger of a similar design(1). She had on a mesh, midriff baring, shirt on and a green leather crop top. She was also wearing the cloak that she had been wearing when she was shopping the previous day. She was wearing green archer's braces on both of her arms. She had her bow, an ornate, green, re-curve, attached to a hook on the back of her cloak(2). As soon as they had greeted each other they headed off.

Meanwhile, in Konoha, Naruto was royally annoyed at the fact that she could no longer do even the tree walking exercise anymore, leaving her with a lot of bruises in places she didn't know she had, literally in this case, and a training field full of destroyed trees. She let out an unintelligible scream. Calmed down somewhat she let out a breath and said, "Fine. Just one step at a time," and placed a foot on the tree. She channelled her chakra to the foot that was on the tree and waited until it had 'taken' and took a step forward, attaching her other foot to the tree. Then she took another slow step, making sure that her foot was firmly attached to the tree before taking another. She repeated the process multiple times until she got to the first branch. She sighed in relief, but fell back to the ground, this time with enough time to spin and land on her feet. She went back to practising.

XXXXX

While Naruto was training there was a council meeting being held in order to determine her fate. Danzō stepped forth, ignoring the demands of the Hyūga Elders to be told where Tsunade was. He said, "All of you gathered here today are the Heads of all of your clans, and responsible for the safety of both your clans and the village," silencing the Hyūga elders. "I have come into possession of some knowledge which threatens all of your lives, and the safety of the village that you, and your forebears, swore to protect."

There were murmurs throughout the council room, which were cut through by Hyūga Hiashi demanding, "What information would that be?"

"I am sorry, but since I..."

"Yes, _what_ information have you come across, Danzō?" Tsunade demanded, the door to the council room flying into the far wall as she entered.

Danzō grimaced, thinking, _'How did _she _find out?!'_

"Well, I'm waiting," Tsunade said, bringing the full force of her Killing Intent down upon Danzō, who flinched, having forgotten that Tsunade had been taught by The Professor.

"I'm talking about Uzumaki Mito's Blades."

The Clan Elders all started to talk to the Clan Head, coming up with all sorts of mad schemes in order to get those blades under lock and key. Tsunade demanded "What _about_ my Grandmother's Blades?"

"What have you done with them?"

"That's no concern of yours Danzō."

"Of course it is! It is our job to step in and protect this village from _you._"

Hiashi, well versed on the history of Uzushiogakure, and somewhat knowledgeable about the Dyrnwyn, asked, "Lord Hokage, we Hyūga are well aware of the Dyrnwyn and their powers, and their side effects. I believe that you are more than aware of them, as are a lot of those gathered here. So could you please inform us as to what you have done to ensure that no shinobi of Konoha gets hurt by them?"

"They are where they belong. I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you more than this. Of course, I'm not so foolish as to try and ban you from finding out on your own, it is just that after Uzumaki Kushina's death all of _her_ Dyrnwyn somehow managed to disappear. So I beseech you, leave them alone."

"Very well," Hiashi said, satisfied that Tsunade wasn't going to give them to someone who couldn't handle them. "I am satisfied that they will not cause harm to any citizens of Konoha." The clans most closely allied with the Hyūga announced their agreement, as did those who knew that the Hyūga served as the unofficial Librarians of the history of the Shinobi World.

After the council had decided to leave it in her hands, Tsunade rounded on the Advisors and said, "Are you three satisfied?"

Koharu said, "No. But it would seem that we have no choice but to let you do as you will.

Homura said, "For the record, I think that those abominations should be melted down."

"So noted," Tsunade spat.

"Well I'm not," Danzō said, "You should give them to me."

"What would you do with them? Study them until you can replicate them? Giving them to _you_ would place the village in even more danger."

"What? No! I have an U..." Tsunade demanded for him to continue, but Danzō was done. He sighed and said, "Do what you will," as he thought, _'They'll be mine in the end.'_

Tsunade turned back to the Shinobi Council and said, "I apologise for your being forced to come here today. This council session is over," a tone of finality in her voice, that all knew was directed to her 'Advisors'.

"Before you do, there is something else I would like for you to tell us, Tsunade."

"What is it _this _time?" Tsunade demanded, well and truly sick of Danzō's pushing.

"I've been informed that Team 7 has returned."

"They have. Now if that's all..."

"Where is the Jinchūriki?"

"_Naruto_ returned from the last mission. Now, you are dis_missed,_" Tsunade said, not willing to play Danzō's pathetic game any longer.

XXXXX

Three days later Yūgao and her team arrived in Konoha as Team Kurenai was leaving. Kiba, seeing a red headed beauty to match the one that had, in no uncertain terms, told him to keep away, walked up to her and said, "Heya hot-stuff, how about you and me…"

Kiba stopped talking as he felt something touching his crown jewels. He looked down and saw that the redhead had placed a short-sword up against them. He looked back up as the redhead said, "Say another word dogbreath and you can say goodbye to any children you might have had."

Kiba, by now, was sweating up a storm and nodded, not saying a word as ordered. Kurenai sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head in frustration. She said, "Kiba. I thought that you would have learned since the last time."

The redhead asked, "Wait. This has happened before?"

"Yes. To another redhead I'm afraid."

"Then maybe I should do it anyway," the redhead said, meaning every word of it.

Another, older, redhead put her hand on her daughter's arm and forced it down, away from Kiba's crotch as she said, "Noriko, as much as it may be warranted," glaring at Kiba, "I don't think that the first thing that you should do upon coming here is to neuter a member of one of the more prominent clans."

Kiba blurted, "Yeah, she's right, listen to your mothe…" Kiba shut up when the girl's mother glared at him with an intensity even greater than Noriko's.

Kurenai looked at Noriko as she said, "Please, I won't ask you to forgive him, but we really do need to get going."

Noriko sighed before saying, "Fine," and returning her short-sword to its scabbard, letting Team Kurenai get underway.

As Kiba walked past his sister, Hana grabbed his arm and threateningly said, "Don't think that you are out of the woods yet, brother." Kiba spent the rest of their mission dreading the return to Konoha.

A few minutes later Team Yūgao, along with Naoko and Noriko had reached the Hokage tower, although they were confused as to why they kept on hearing massive crashing sounds on their way. Putting their curiosity on hold for a while they walked up the stairs to the Hokage's office, although Naoko and Noriko had to supress their urge to just run up the wall instead. When they got to the office they were let in right away as Tsunade had given orders for Team Yūgao to be let in without the usual ten to fifteen minute waiting period that she liked to have between meetings. When they were all in Tsunade started to speak before Naoko demanded, "What the _hell_ Tsunade?" Tsunade sighed. "I should have been told about…"

"I didn't know. I didn't even know that he existed until he managed to convince me to take the position of Hokage. Even if I did, I doubt that I would have been able to find you myself. After all, in the time since you went into hiding I was usually either gambling or drunk, sometimes both. Then, when I became Hokage, well…"

"You could have at least sent that charlatan Jiraiya to look for me."

"He's was out of contact for three years, training your nephew in fact."

"Oh? Then he must be very proficient in fūinjutsu then."

"Actually, from what Jiraiya tells me he doesn't know a thing. Well, he can make some explosive tags and use a generic sealing technique, but that's it."

Naoko looked horrified. "But surely someone…" Tsunade shook her head. Naoko was furious. She exclaimed, "How could they!?"

Neji said, "Naruto's scores were the lowest in the academy's history. He shouldn't be able to…"

"Of course they were," Naoko spat.

"What do you mean?"

"Uzumaki have too much chakra to use low level ninjutsu like those taught in your academy. That's why we focus on fūinjutsu and non-chakra fighting methods in the earlier years."

"Then how do you…"

"Chakra control exercises for the Uzumaki are different than those that your clan uses."

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"It's not that hard a concept," Naoko said, "The Hyūga clan largely consists of those with smaller amounts of chakra reserves. Since that is the case they use their Byakugan in order to increase the finite control over their chakra to a point that they can enter into drawn out battles. It is also where their precious Jūken comes from. Conversely, Uzumaki have incredibly large supplies of chakra. As such we can enter longer battles easier. However to learn to control our chakra we first need to learn how to use larger amounts before using smaller amounts. I bet a lot of the academy teachers wrote Naruto off when they saw his chakra control issues, thereby affecting his performance in the knowledge-based areas of your curriculum too."

Tsunade said, "At any rate, all of that is in the past. You have probably guessed why I asked you to come here Naoko, but…"

"Actually, I was told that either I come here with these shinobi, or they would kill me."

Tsunade frowned and said, "I never gave any order to that effect. Who told you that?" Naoko looked at Yūgao. "What's going on Yūgao?"

"What do you mean? It was in the file that you gave to me."

"No it…" Tsunade said before she thought, '_Danzō. What are you up to now?_' she sighed and said, "You know what, forget about it."

Naoko thought, '_I wonder what is going on. There must be someone trying to interfere with the Hokage's job. Well, it has nothing to do with me…for now anyway._' She said, "Alright."

"Okay, Yūgao, Hana, Neji, Lee, well done. You can leave now." The four shinobi thanked Tsunade before leaving to pick up their pay. When they were gone Tsunade said, "I'll get straight to the point."

"Good," Naoko said, as she and Noriko were both getting tired of waiting to find out about their last surviving relative.

"There are a few things that happened about a week ago that caused me to send a team to find you." Tsunade paused to let either redhead speak before continuing. When neither did Tsunade said, "But first I should probably tell you a bit about what was leading up to it." Tsunade saw Noriko's eyebrows starting to lower in annoyance. "Naruto's original genin team consisted of himself, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

Naoko's eyes widened in surprise before narrowing in anger as she spat, "Uchiha! What were they thinking, putting an Uzumaki and an Uchiha on the same team? That's just an explosion waiting to happen."

"Yes, well Sarutobi-sensei was too optimistic on a good day. At any rate, Sasuke was considered an all-round genius from a very young age."

Noriko scoffed, "Probably had everything handed to him on a silver platter."

"There may have been an element of that, yes. Naruto on the other hand, as Neji told you, had some of the worst scores the academy had seen, so they were put on a team together. But, as you said they developed a rivalry of sorts. Originally it was only Naruto that saw it that way, but when he became strong in a really short amount of time Sasuke started to feel inferior."

"How so?" Naoko asked.

"Jiraiya gave Naruto access to the Toad Contract and taught him the Rasengan."

"Like I said. We're better with more taxing jutsu at the beginning."

"Yes. Well, it all came to a head three years ago when Sasuke left the village to join up with another traitor from this village, Orochimaru, who had given Sasuke a curse mark."

Noriko asked, "What's a curse mark?"

Naoko said, "It's an abomination, a corruption of fūinjutsu on a massive scale. Curse marks try to seal part of the user's soul into another person with the goal of controlling that person. That is why the research was banned in Uzushiogakure. Trust an Uchiha to come up with the idea of using it."

"Yes, well, try telling that to some of the members of the council. Anyway, the team's jōnin-sensei, Kakashi Hatake sealed the curse seal with the Fūja Hōin(3)."

Naoko scoffed, "As if that would be enough. If it was sealed with that, then it should have at least been reinforced with a Gogyō Fūin(4), roughshod a method it would have been. Although killing the Uchiha would have been better, power hungry bunch of…"

"Well, unfortunately…" _'For some.' _"…the Uchiha were one of the founding members of Konoha, so just killing one out of hand is a bit too…excessive for some people. Besides, if that _had_ happened we would have killed the citizens' golden child and there might have been a civil war. At any rate, around six months after that the Uchiha deserted the village and we had only genin left, Naruto amongst them. I sent a team after them with orders to retrieve Sasuke whatever the cost. Unfortunately, my apprentice met up with them before they left and made Naruto promise to return him to the village, no matter what."

"Oh bloody hell," Naoko said, knowing that all Uzumaki make sure to follow through on their word, no matter how long it took. "So, what's happened since?"

"There was a mission to retrieve two weeks ago. I sent Yūgao and her team as soon as they got back."

"So what happened on the mission?"

"Naruto transformed into the Kyūbi to…"

"He's a Jinchūriki?"

"Yes."

"Well, it makes sense…"

Noriko asked, "My cousin's a what?"

"They sealed one of the Nine Tailed Beasts into him," Naoko said, a tear rolling down her cheek. She then angrily said, "Those idiots."

"Excuse me?" Tsunade asked.

"One of the essential things for a jinchūriki is neither solitude nor loyalty for a village."

"What?"

"The Sandaime shouldn't have hidden Naruto's existence, and he most certainly shouldn't have let the villager's treat him as he must have been if what the Hyūga was saying is true." Naoko sighed and said, "Well, it's too late for regrets now anyway."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's not relevant at the moment. What happened last week?"

"Well…" Tsunade sighed, "alright, Naruto went into a four-tailed state in order to fight against Orochimaru when Team Kakashi tried to tail Orochimaru's right hand man to see if that would lead them to Sasuke. Orochimaru and his lieutenant, Kabuto, escaped from them. Team Kakashi trailed them back to their lair where they ran across Sasuke. Naruto was exhausted from his transformation and got run through by Sasuke's lightning enhanced sword, which increased the vibratory rate of his chakra."

"Okay, your point being?"

"Each individual's chakra vibrates at a different frequency, and different frequencies have different effects. Higher frequencies allow for greater control of ones chakra"

"Okay…so then that's a good thing, right?"

"Normally, yes."

"But not this time?"

"Indeed. It was likely coincidence, but Naruto's chakra frequency was increased to a certain level…"

Noriko groaned, "Get to the point already."

"Chakra vibratory rates are a complex and…" Noriko and Naoko glared at Tsunade. Tsunade sighed and said, "Fine. Chakra vibratory rates are closely linked with the body that they are generated from. If the rate is increased or decreased, the person usually dies."

Naoko frowned as she said, "Usually?"

"Yes. I don't know if it is because of him being an Uzumaki, or a jinchūriki, but Naruto's body underwent a transformation to handle the new chakra vibratory rate."

"A transformation?"

"Yes. You ran into Kiba just after you entered the village, right?"

"Is that the Inuzuka?"

"That would be him."

"Then yes."

"Kurenai told you that he had another encounter with a redhead, correct?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

Tsunade just smiled, not answering the question. "Well, he didn't know it, but the redhead that he 'interacted' with, was Naruto."

"Excuse me?" Naoko asked, confused at what Tsunade was telling her.

"Naruto's body adapted to the new CVR by transforming into a form that could handle it. In this case that of a female. Additionally, it threw her chakra control out of whack, so she's currently destroying half of Konoha's trees in order to get it back to where it should be."

"If this is all you dragged me her for, then I'd rather you had left me alone," Naoko said, fuming at the information that she had been given thus far.

"If that was the case then I wouldn't have bothered. While on the mission my apprentice didn't know what was going on so called on their jōnin to stay while the transformation took place. You see, during the transformation Naruto's body, essentially, shut itself down so it wouldn't feel the pain of the restructuring and when she woke up, as you could imagine, she needed new clothes, so Team Kakashi searched Orochimaru's lair and my apprentice found some clothes that would fit her. As it turns out it was an Uzushiogakure uniform." Naoko looked shocked that a uniform from her village had been found, let alone that an Uzumaki was using it. "Of course, I don't know if it is the genuine article or a copy. Either way, right now Naruto has a full set of Uzushiogakure's uniform, including my grandmother's Dyrnwyn and bow. I'm told that Naruto is already experienced in the use of the bow, but…"

"Like I thought, you need me to teach him...uhh…her…how to use the Dyrnwyn."

"Indeed. Although I would appreciate it if you could get her chakra control to an acceptable level before she causes us to have to rename the village."

XXXXXXX

A/N

(1) art/Ru-fiel-and-Koryr-96787528

(2) art/Elf-Ranger-43369917

(3) Fūja Hōin: This technique is used to suppress technique-induced marks on a person. Marks of weaker power can be completely suppressed by this technique alone, but for marks of higher power, like Sasuke Uchiha's Cursed Seal of Heaven, it will cause the seal's power to become dependent on the recipient's own willpower to some extent, especially if the sealer is not experienced enough to strengthen the seal with his own power

(4) Gogyō Fūin: Five Element Seal is a technique which produces a powerful seal that is used to block or disturb the flow of chakra in a target.


End file.
